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Book review
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Loneliness
孤独
All by myself
独身一人
Three books examine the drawbacks and benefits of being alone.
三本书探究了孤独的好处和坏处。
All the Lonely People. By Sam Carr.
《所有孤独的人》，萨姆·卡尔著。
Solitude. By Netta Weinstein, Heather Hansen and Thuy-vy Nguyen.
《孤独》，奈塔·韦恩斯坦、希瑟·汉森、阮翠薇著。
The Triumph of the Slippers. By Pascal Bruckner.
《拖鞋的胜利》，帕斯卡尔·布鲁克纳著。
William shakespeare, that great coiner, is given credit for the word “lonely”.
伟大的词汇创造者威廉·莎士比亚因为“孤独”这个词而受到赞扬。
Coriolanus, one of his heroes, compares going into exile to a “lonely dragon” retreating to his lair.
科利奥兰纳斯是莎剧的主角之一，他将被流放比作“孤独的龙”退回自己的巢穴。
The Roman general was talking about a physical state: someone who was lonely was simply alone.
这位罗马将军谈论的是一种身体状态：孤独就是一个人待着。
Then, thanks to the Romantic poets, the word took on emotional overtones.
之后，浪漫主义诗人让这个词有了情感色彩。
Loneliness became a condition of the soul.
孤独成了灵魂的一种状态。
For William Wordsworth, who famously “wandered lonely as a cloud”, the natural world offered a reprieve from negative feelings of isolation—a host of daffodils could provide “jocund company”.
威廉·华兹华斯有一句著名的诗：“孤独地漫游，像一朵云。”对他来说，大自然让他暂时摆脱了孤独的负面感觉，一大片水仙花也可以是“愉快的伴侣”。
By the early 20th century loneliness was considered one of the defining afflictions of urban life.
到了20世纪初，孤独被认为是城市生活中最本质的痛苦之一。
Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, lamented that a feeling that was “once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal social conditions like old age, has become an everyday experience of the ever-growing masses”.
政治理论家汉娜·阿伦特哀叹：“孤独曾经是一种边缘体验，人们通常在老年等边缘的社会情况下才会有孤独感，现在这已成为越来越多的人的日常体验。”
Her concerns resonate today, as loneliness is frequently identified as a serious public-health problem, an epidemic even, that besets the elderly and young alike.
她的担忧在现在引起了共鸣，因为孤独经常被认为是一个严重的公共健康问题，甚至是一种流行病，困扰着老年人和年轻人。
During the covid-19 pandemic half of Britons reported often feeling lonely; those aged between 16 and 24 struggled the most.
在新冠肺炎期间，有一半的英国人经常感到孤独，16岁至24岁的人孤独感最深。
Smartphones, social media, online dating and working from home are all blamed for feelings of alienation.
智能手机、社交媒体、在线约会和居家办公都因为会带来孤独感而受到责备。
Three recent books have taken on the subject.
最近出版的三本书就讨论了这个主题。
In “All the Lonely People” Sam Carr, a psychologist, collects stories of individuals who feel cut off or forsaken.
在《所有孤独的人》中，心理学家萨姆·卡尔收集了那些感觉被孤立或被遗弃的人的故事。
A teenage Afghan refugee struggles to blend in at school in Somerset.
在萨默塞特郡，一名十几岁的阿富汗难民努力融入学校。
An octogenarian languishes in a retirement home.
一位八十多岁的老人在养老院里日益衰老。
Mr Carr handles this material sensitively, weaving their experiences together with his own, in particular his role as a single parent.
卡尔带着细腻的情感去处理这些材料，将他们的经历与自己的经历结合，特别是他作为单亲父亲的角色。
The author evokes the pain of bereavement, heartbreak and childhood trauma and underlines the stigma attached to being withdrawn and friendless.
作者唤起了失去亲人、心碎和童年创伤带来的痛苦，并强调了性格孤僻和没有朋友所附带的羞耻感。
Somehow, the book is not an unbearably bleak read, but you do wonder whether loneliness is just an unavoidable part of the human condition.
不知何故，这本书读起来并不是阴郁到让人无法忍受，但你确实想知道，孤独是否只是人类境况中不可避免的一部分。
The range of testimonies also suggests that loneliness is not a single feeling so much as a name for a medley of emotions and unsatisfied appetites.
书中的一系列自述还表明，孤独不是一种单一的感觉，而是各种混杂的情绪和未满足的渴望的名字。
